Not as easy as it seems : leadership

Not as easy as it seems : leadership

Leadership continues to remain a challenge all over the world. Nations, businesses and organisations are always in search for leaders to take them to where to really want to be. Leaders are always in demand, and that is good news!

Leadership is an interesting subject all over the world and somehow, we all have been caught up in this intricate Web of leadership. People  somehow are involved in economic analysis, business analysis and government analysis to mention but a few, and it all boils down to leadership. Ooh yes, it is an interesting subject especially when followers begin to criticise and lay blames especially  on the leaders. Leadership might seem easy from the outside, but it can be very challenging in the real sense of it.  

Leadership positions vary quite a lot and you must not be a manager or a hold a government position to become a leader. In your little corner and home for example you can display great leadership qualities and that makes you a leader ( at least I think so). Leadership qualities are widespread and you probably are doing most of it ; vision, people skills, organisational skills, communication skills and the likes .

Somehow, I have been involved in quite a lot of leadership positions and charged with the responsibility as such in my little ways *smiles* . So yes, I'm going to share my story.

I was the platoon 10 leader during the 2014 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) batch C orientation camp in Enugu State, Nigeria. As a platoon leader, my primary objective was to organise , encourage and mobilise platoon 10 members to partake in the different activities during the NYSC orientation camp. I had previous experience in organisation and leadership , but this one was a bit challenging. It was a different ball game!  First, I had to deal with several people from different academic backgrounds with different levels of exposure. Some corps members were very willing to corporate , some very reluctant and some did not even care to know what was going on in the platoon.

My first task was to motivate the platoon members and make them realise that together we can achieve great things in the camp, irrespective of whatever challenge we might face. During this time, I worked effectively with fellow corps members, NYSC officials and the military men assigned to the platoon to ensure proper running of the platoon. Next up, I  delegated duties and set up a system of people that would assist in managing the activities of the platoon, and different activity leaders and assistants were elected  consequently. Then, I worked with all the leaders to come up with a feasible practice time-table and ensured that every activity group followed it to their best capacity. With all these in place, there was belief in the platoon, that, yes , this time platoon 10 can be the best.  In the end, the platoon did quite well. Everyone was happy and we set up a What'sapp group for sharing of  useful information amongst ourselves after the camp.

It was quite an experience and an interesting challenging one at that. Dealing with people can be very tricky and empathetic communication skills is at the centre of it all if we must succeed in our various leadership positions. The first thing is to have a vision and then coming up with various short and long term plans to lead you to the final stage of what you and your organisation / business wants to achieve. This needs to be explained vividly to members of the group and please, be open minded.  For someone to have a different opinion from yours , there must be something they are seeing that you aren't seeing right? So, why not try and see through the other person's view points first. Also,  It is important that every member of the group is involved in coming up with a mission statement. Yes, this in itself can serve as a driver and can go a long way to imbibe a good work ethic in the organisation. Again, you must not do everything yourself. Get people involved and make them understand how important they are to the group. People like to know they are important and once you can make them know this, you probably won't have a challenge dealing with them. This is obviously not exhaustive and we can always get more leadership tips online , through books, seminars and lectures as desired.  So yes, let's go out there and become leaders in our various endeavours. Nothing is too small remember?
Finally, I close with this :  "You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." --Woodrow Wilson.
Remember to send in your stories @ mygpland@gmail.com. Please subscribe , share and invite your friends to join the blog. Have a great week ahead!